Worth The Fight (Hard To Love #1) by T.A. McKay

The ring is his home. It’s the place he feels in control.Zeke ‘The Storm’ Raine has his life all planned out.Fight it.Win it.Own it.The plan was working, it’s almost his time to shine, to be the ultimate.One moment was all it took to bring it all crashing down around him. One punch, one moment of distraction, one mistake by another and his dream could be a faint memory.Bryce Tanner, one time fighter and now the coach Zeke doesn’t think he needs. Moving to a new country to take this job, and he's determined that he will succeed. Now that he's met Zeke, Bryce must make his own plans, rules that he is going to have to work hard to stick to.Be strong.Be professional.Be his coach.He just doesn’t know if he will be able to resist.

Passions run high, making their professional relationship difficult. Can they keep the outward façade while becoming more?Now Zeke needs to decide, is he willing to walk away from what he loves?

Will he be able to win the most important fight of his life?

Pet’s $0.02

Hot MMA fighter? Check. Career on the line? Check. Relationship that has to be hidden? Check.

Hot M/M romance? Che…What?

I may be wrong, but I cannot think of another MMA fighter romance out there that centers around two hot men. This is not a genre that can usually handle this kind of scenario… but I can tell you it should, and there should be more of them if they’re anything like this one!

Zeke is completely driven. He’s on the cusp of winning the fight of his life and having everything he’s worked for. Yeah, he can be kind of an asshole… but he’s working to win the title and you can excuse some of it as just being focused and not putting up with bullshit or incompetence. I really couldn’t blame him for not trusting Bryce since his last coach fucked over his career so badly. When he actually meets Bryce??? Fuck….fireworks! I mean, I felt the attraction and I wanted them together. But again…M/M in a non M/M arena. You knew there were going to be problems. Not the ones I expected, but problems none the less.

There is really nothing to not love about Bryce. That he’s hot is a given, and I love his reasoning behind keeping so fit. He’s not afraid of Zeke and his bad attitude and he knows his shit as a coach. His background is both better than Zeke’s and more heartbreaking. I cried for him over his past and felt righteous indignation on his behalf in dealing with Zeke. But he also doesn’t run from his feelings, which makes me respect him.

These are two men who should probably not work together as well as they do. Too many secrets, too many excuses and too many mistakes are made that should be impossible to come back from. It was hard to read some of it and I wanted to cause a little bodily harm myself a few times. But the story kept me hooked and I couldn’t stop even when I got to parts that pissed me off. The situations were real, they were unapologetic and they didn’t paint a happy rainbows picture of what it’s like to be gay in a very straight sport…and world for that matter.

I’ve always been a fan of the M/M genre, but it’s been a while since I’ve felt this much excitement over a M/M series. If you’re a fan and you’ve not yet read T.A. McKay, do yourself a favor and introduce yourself to her work, I promise you won’t be disappointed.